November 25, 2016

Daniel O’Hanley was a missionary in Nicaraqua from 1984-1991, working in solidarity with the Nicaraguan people in a time of great upheaval. He was killed on July 3,1991, in Managua as a result of a botched robbery. Each year his life is commemorated by a lecture whose topics and presenters reflect current times and conditions both in the south and in the north. This year we were privileged to hear Stephen J. Augustine, Hereditary Chief Mi’kmaq Grand Council and Dean Unama’ki College and Aboriginal Learning at Cape Breton University. This remarkable, gifted, gentle man, starting in the present, took us on a journey back into the history of his people to their origins in the Maritimes. His insights, regarding their deep faith in the “ONE ENTITY” who is good and is the source of all life and their sense of belonging to Mother Earth were very powerful. Theirs, he said, is an Earth Religion. He quoted one of the missionaries who came in the early days to “bring the faith” as saying: “These people are living the catechism.” We felt at home when he made connections to Lennox Island, to Eskasoni, to places in NB, like Big Cove, and in particular when he made the connections with the Acadian people. It was a stimulating, thought -provoking lecture.

November 25, 2016

Sally Armstrong, human rights activist, journalist, author, presented to a packed house at St. Thomas University, Fredericton, NB this week. Her dynamic true stories – from her work in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Kenya, Congo and elsewhere show how women can change the face of poverty and effect change. Sally says the use of the internet has brought women together from all over the world, and when women communicate and share stories, things happen. I have heard her tell these stories before but the passion and strength she gives them is always worth a revisit. Ascent of Women (2013) and Uprising: A New Age is Dawning for Every Mother’s Daughter (2014) tell Sally’s direct experience of the courage, tenacity and wit of women around the world who are shaking established ways – cultural and religious – of holding women back from education and progress.